Skulduggery in Santiago del Estero: The Chaos Behind England's Escape in Argentina

England left Santiago del Estero with a 31-24 win and their second Nations Championship victory of the summer.

What they also left with was a diplomatic headache, a furious opposite number, and some serious questions over discipline that Steve Borthwick clearly didn’t want to answer.

Set the scene

This was never going to be a straightforward Test match. Argentina’s players wore replica shirts inspired by Diego Maradona’s 1986 World Cup kit, and fans in the stands unfurled banners reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”; the Falklands are Argentine. Add in the fact that England had beaten Argentina in the World Cup semi-final only days earlier, and the Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades was always going to be a hostile watch. Borthwick’s side did their early talking on the pitch instead, racing into a 19-3 half-time lead through Tommy Freeman’s fourth-minute try and a Ben Earl brace.

Then it fell apart

What followed was one of the most chaotic second halves rugby’s produced in some time. Argentina clawed their way back into it through Mateo Carreras and a penalty try, but the bigger story was what happened to England’s discipline. Jack van Poortvliet was sin-binned, followed by Alex Coles, then Henry Pollock and Emmanuel Iyogun in the space of three minutes late on; four yellow cards in total, leaving England playing a combined nine minutes with 13 men, including the closing stages of the match.

It’s not an isolated blip either. England have now picked up 14 yellow cards across their last eight Tests, a stat that’s becoming impossible to ignore however well the results are going.

What the cameras caught

Amid the chaos, there was a moment that deserves a mention even if it never made an official citing. Around the same passage of play in which the referee and TMO were reviewing an Argentina player for a neck roll, the broadcast footage cut to a separate angle at a ruck involving Henry Pollock. From what I saw on my screen, it looked very much like an Argentina player reached in, got a hand between Pollock’s legs, and used it to haul him out of the ruck; the kind of off-the-ball, below-the-belt contact that wouldn’t look out of place in a wrestling match rather than a Test match. It happened fast, the cameras moved on, and nothing came of it officially, but for anyone watching live it was one of those moments that summed up quite how feral this game had become. Worth a rewatch if the broadcaster puts the highlights package up and I’d be curious whether anyone else caught the same thing.

Genge gets his own back

Not every bit of needle went Argentina’s way, mind. After Ben Earl’s second try put England further clear, Ellis Genge celebrated by cupping his ears, sticking out his tongue and blowing a kiss to the home crowd; a direct lift of Enzo Fernández’s own celebration after his equaliser in Argentina’s World Cup football semi-final win over England, just days earlier. Genge handing Argentina’s own taunt straight back to them, in front of a stadium that had turned up in Maradona shirts to remind England of 1986, was about as pointed as sporting revenge gets. Whatever else Saturday was, it wasn’t short on theatre.

The final act

Marcus Smith and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso had put England back in control at 31-17, but Justo Piccardo’s try with the clock in the red brought Argentina to within a converted try of an improbable draw. Fin Smith’s long restart handed Argentina a two-man overlap and 80 yards to work with, and after 22 phases they thought they’d found it; Simon Benitez Cruz sending Bautista Delguy over in the corner. TMO Brett Cronan disagreed, ruling Delguy had been forced into touch by a last-ditch Henry Slade tackle, and the try was chalked off to end the match.

The fallout

The post-match press conference produced more fireworks than the final quarter. Argentina head coach Felipe Contepomi walked out of his briefing, accusing England of a “lack of respect” after he took exception to celebrations and music audible from the England dressing room during his press duties.

Borthwick, for his part, wasn’t in the mood to discuss the discipline that had nearly cost his side the game. Asked about the cards, he pushed back at reporters: “I don’t think now is the time to be digging into that. This team has done really, really well. It was a tough Test match, a fantastic Test match, we scored some wonderful tries and as ever you guys concentrate on the negativity. You’re like the negativity committee, so it’s lovely coming and talking to you again.”

Feyi-Waboso, fresh off being named England’s standout performer, was rather more candid about what needs fixing before the November window: “Definitely discipline is a huge thing. I don’t know how many cards there were in that game, but it was too many. Can’t be finishing games where we are down to 13 men. It makes it hard to win.”

The bigger picture

Strip away the shirts and the banners and the walkout, and this was still a match England could easily have lost. A 16-point half-time cushion nearly wasn’t enough against an Argentina side playing with real emotion in front of their own crowd, and the closing quarter; four cards, a penalty try, a last-gasp score ruled out only by the finest of margins, will do nothing to quiet the growing concerns about England’s ill-discipline heading into a November window that brings Australia, Japan and New Zealand to London.

England will bank the win, the six-from-six record on Argentine soil, and Feyi-Waboso’s man-of-the-match display. But between Contepomi’s parting shot and Borthwick’s prickliness on the discipline question, this was a result that has sent pundits and social media crazy.